CHRM-MID◆Midnight Editorial
AtmosphereSartorial Silence
Accent—
Surface—
001▲
EXPERIENCE ARCHITECTURE · TEMPORAL DESIGN SYSTEMS

hro·mo·lo·gi·um

noun·Greek chrōma (color, surface) + Latin -logium (catalogue, discourse)

Where matter becomes interface.

1.
An independent archive translating the physical◈ knowledge of making into digital design — from hand-ground lampblack to living screen tokens.
2.
A working studio for studying how interfaces respond to diurnal time◈, optical friction, and physical materiality◈ across the archive’s visual movements.
Learn from materials. Test a principle. Take a working study into your project.
Make your first study Explore the archive
MATERIAL STUDY / 001LIGHT / PIGMENT / FORM
THE CHROMATIC ASSEMBLY

A little light. A different material.

Paper, pigment, a fine brass axis.

Explore light & surface

Explore the logo’s curved form.

Ribbon layers assembled into the Chromologium mark. Ambient light restored.
THE WORKING LOOP / 01—04

Keep the reason with the result.

In plain terms: start with a reference, test a decision, and leave with an editable study you can reopen or export.

  1. 01OBSERVEFind a material with a history.Trace a place, practice, or surface before you style it.
  2. 02TESTTry one principle in motion.Change light, type, space, and response in a working specimen.
  3. 03RECORDName the choice and why it matters.Keep your rationale beside the interface it shaped.
  4. 04CARRY FORWARDLeave with something you can use.Reopen, compare, export, or hand the study to your team.
Start with a brief
INDEX · CHAMBER I · SPECIMEN ARCHIVE
I

The Chromatarium

OKLCH Architectural Paint Chips & Design Tokens

The pigment wall / 10 systems

Find a surface that feels like you.

Lift a sample. Catch the light.
See what a little color can change.

SYS-01 / lightIn the room

Midnight Editorial

SYS-02 / lightArchive specimen

Glass Garden

SYS-03 / lightArchive specimen

Warm Minimal

SYS-04 / lightArchive specimen

Cybernetic Terminal

SYS-05 / lightArchive specimen

Swiss Brutalism

SYS-06 / lightArchive specimen

Kyoto Urushi

SYS-07 / lightArchive specimen

Scriptorium Vellum

SYS-08 / lightArchive specimen

Apollo Avionics

SYS-09 / lightArchive specimen

Song Celadon

SYS-10 / lightArchive specimen

Risograph Ephemera

Two samples / one light

A place to compare.

Place a sample here

Choose Compare on a card,
or drag its Compare handle here.

Place a sample here

Choose Compare on a card,
or drag its Compare handle here.

Same light. Different surfaces. Move or tap above; use arrow keys when focused.

0 of 2 comparison places filled.

Your own formulation

Make room for
something new.

Mix a color of your own. Keep its recipe on your ring, or let it become the room.

BESPOKE-01BESPOKE SPECIMENVelvet Matte
Solar Ochre

Bespoke Alchemy

AAA16.8:1
Aa Xx 00
HERO HEX#D4A74A
RECIPEBESPOKE-01
BESPOKE-01 · BESPOKE RECIPEBESPOKE ALCHEMY
GENERATED TOKENS:
--ds-accent: #d4a74a;
--ds-bg-primary: #faf8f5;
--ds-fg-primary: #14120f;
--ds-fg-muted: #756f66;
WIDE GAMUT & P3 TELEMETRY:
Solar Ochre
sRGB Standard
OKLCH FORMULATION:oklch(0.752 0.122 82.987)
P3 CODE SNIPPET:color(display-p3 0.845 0.605 0.284)
CURATOR'S NOTE:

“Bespoke formulation created live by the visitor. Ready to be clipped onto your personal Swatch Ring or exported as production design tokens.”

CURATOR FIELD SLIP · BATCH 0I

Before an interface is formed, it begins with pigment and light. This chamber displays 20 light and dark paint formulations across 10 systems. Inspect physical finish sheens (Velvet Matte, Eggshell, High Gloss Lacquer), flip each chip to explore its recipe formula, and clip your favorite samples to your personal swatch ring.

CHAPTER 02

What are you making room for?

Bring a brief to the desk. We’ll lay out a few materials to try.

Suggested for your brief

Typographic hierarchy and quieter surfaces give long passages room to breathe.

A starting point for your brief, not a measured ranking.

On the desk / SYS-01
FIELDNOTESVolume 01 / Material culture
ESSAY / 6 MIN READ

The quiet life of a material.

A surface remembers the light that falls upon it. An archive begins by paying attention.

SYS-01 · Midnight Editorial / light
CHAPTER 03

Follow your curiosity into the laboratory.

Four ways in. Ten working instruments. Start with one small experiment.

SYS-01 · Antique Bronzelight formulation
The light desk

Catch a little of the spectrum.

Move across the prism to redirect the light.

Open the full instrument
Light07Optics09Thin film
Matter08Pigment emulsion06Print substrates10Chromatic loom
Type04Typography02Perception03State matrix
Motion01Spring physics05Acoustics
CHAPTER 04

A color is never alone.

Put your material in context. Then feel its response and hear a single note.

SYS-01 · Antique Bronzelight formulation
01 / Observe

Same pigment. A different ground.

INK
PAPER
3.56:1 on ink#8A65204.74:1 on paper

WCAG luminance contrast of the selected pigment against each ground. The sample itself does not change color.

02 / Feel

A little resistance.

Your touch sets the duration.
03 / Hear

A note for this material.

110.00 Hz · the system’s assigned tone. Sound plays only when requested.

CHAPTER 05

Let the material become an interface.

Same words. Same tasks. A different way to experience them.

SYS-01 · Antique Bronzelight formulation
FIELDNOTESVolume 01 / Material culture
ESSAY / 6 MIN READ

The quiet life of a material.

A surface remembers the light that falls upon it. An archive begins by paying attention.

SYS-01 · Midnight Editorial / light

An interactive interface specimen with demonstration content. Your chosen surface, type, and spacing are real.

CHAPTER 06

There is a story behind the surface.

Open a volume. Trace a material. Find the word you were looking for.

9 monographs

The reading room

Longer thoughts on the things that shape an experience.

Layers of Valser quartzite across the facade of Therme Vals
CHE / VALS
46.62° N · 9.18° E
32 material specimens

A material atlas

From mineral origins to the character of a finished surface.

41 lexicon entries

A shared vocabulary

The language of color, perception, and material craft.

CHAPTER 07

A few notes before you take it away.

Answers at the desk, with the full reference index close at hand.

What am I looking at in this material?

Midnight Editorial is the light formulation of SYS-01. The hero pigment is #8a6520, with a chalk emulsion finish. The card brings the surface, text, and accent colors together; choosing one keeps that formulation on the desk as you explore.

Read the system specification →
How does this palette handle legibility?

The primary text and background in this formulation have a computed WCAG luminance contrast of 18.13:1. This measures that pair only. The interface proof lets you inspect the wider composition; individual text sizes, states, and other color pairings still need their own checks.

Explore contrast in the perception laboratory →
What can I use in my own project?

Collect the formulations you like on your ring, then download their CSS variables or structured JSON at the packing desk below. You can also take a static HTML specimen of your selected interface, or install a working instrument from the component registry.

Go to the packing desk →
What is measured, modeled, or interpreted?

Contrast values shown here are computed from the displayed color pair. Laboratory notes identify simplified models and browser measurements where they appear. Material ancestors, atmosphere, and sensory character are authored interpretations: they are references for design, not measurements of a historical object.

Read the curatorial method →
Browse the full reference index

The reference index

Follow a question into the archive.

Topic: Color Science & OKLCH Mathematical Uniformity2 Core Inquiries
CHAPTER 08

Take a little of the archive with you.

Your materials, neatly packed for the next thing you make.

Your ring / 2 formulations
Aureolin GoldBrushed mineral · satin
SYS-01 · Midnight Editorialdark
Viridian GlazeGlazed pigment · eggshell
SYS-02 · Glass Gardenlight
Return to the paint wall
Packing slip / 2 enclosed

Colors with their names attached.

Exact color values from your collected formulations, ready to copy or download.

Material study / editable recordHUMAN + AGENT
Intent
A place to read · Stories, essays, thoughtful detail
Reference
Cast Bell Bronze & Oxidized Patina · Renaissance foundry, Padua (c. 1500)
Decision
Midnight Editorial (Light) · editorial · comfortable spacing
Response
System kinetics retained

Interpretation Authored material reference. It informs this digital system; it is not a physical measurement of the named object.

Also on your deskMidnight Editorial / editorial

A standalone HTML specimen of your current interface view, with its palette and spacing. A static study with local font fallbacks.

Set a frontispiece for sharing
For your codebase or your agent
◈ OPEN ENDPOINTS · MIT

Put the archive to work

Install a working instrument in your project, or connect an agent to the archive’s materials, calculations, and references.

COMPONENT REGISTRY

Install an instrument

shadcn-compatible registry items. The optical engine, the dispersion prism, the Kubelka–Munk bath, the material plate — copied into your repo, not added as a dependency.

npx shadcn@latest add https://chromologium.com/r/material-plate.json

Arrives with 32 catalogued specimens — Carrara marble at n 1.56, scatter 0.65, patina 0.08/century.

Browse the registry →
MODEL CONTEXT PROTOCOL

Give an agent the archive

A live MCP server. Ask it what a material does to light, mix two archival pigments with real Kubelka–Munk scattering, audit a colour pair against APCA, or get a citation.

claude mcp add --transport http chromologium https://chromologium.com/mcp

23 tools, 11 resources, 6 prompts. mix_pigments(Aureolin Gold, Klein Blue) returns #0a4672 — paint, not the #656a81 an RGB average would give you.

Every client, configured →